"Mongolia is kind of close, right?" Story about an attempt to ski everywhere in the world where there's snow. And in some places where there isn't. On and off-piste skiing on all continents, skiing into craters of live volcanoes, caving, climbing, photography, and travel.

Sunday, October 8, 2017

Russian Bunkers in Masala

Is that a green mushroom, or is somebody trying to exit a forgotten and blown-up bunker? Jarmo and Eino joined today for a walk through Masala, in an effort to again find bunkers left from the Russian occupation of Kirkkonummi. We found three bunkers, one of which was very interesting. Even if dangerous.

The map from local orienteering club, Lynx, was once again useful: map of Ingvalsby. Maps of other areas can be found here.

We found the remains of two bunkers and one bunker/warehouse. The first bunker was a tiny closet. Not clear if there had been something more here at some point. Coordinates: N 60.15385901 E 24.52339043.

The warehouse was well preserved, but easy enough to enter so that there was plenty of junk inside. An interesting building though. Coordinates: N 60.15336494 E 24.52304893.

The rainy walk towards the third structure turned into a very wet one as we had to cross small rivers and a swamp area

But the third discovery was both amazing and scary. This was a full size multi-story bunker with several rooms, covering a large area, and a large round main entrance door that had been filled with concrete. And the whole bunker had been destroyed with explosives, perhaps by the Russians as they left.

Still, there were two holes to enter the structure. However, inside the floor slabs were tilted in different directions, boulders and pieces of concrete about to slide down, walls made of broken pieces of concrete held together only by the rusted pieces of rebar.

We decide to peek inside, and I went through from one of the entrances to another one. But we did to dare venture to the lower level, as climbing back would have forced us to climb a wall of rebar mesh with concrete pieces hanging from it. And we could not enter the other rooms than the entrance hallway, because on the second floor the blown-up floors were merely loose collection of hanging pieces of concrete. I think it is possible to to tour the whole bunker, just that we felt it was too dangerous.

Update: it seems that the round opening is for a gun, similar to other bunkers in the area. I learned more from this link.

Warning: kids, do *not* enter these bunkers. Underground, destroyed structures are dangerous and could collapse at any moment. Actually, this applies to adults as well. Stay out. Also, the whole area is dangerous, because the few holes into the bunker have been grown over by grass, so it is possible to fall into the bunker just by walking around.

More pictures from the third bunker:

First bunker and its surroundings in green-covered cliff area:

Warehouse:

Pictures from the walk:

Photos (c) 2017 by Jari Arkko and Jarmo Ruuth. All rights reserved. This blog is also available on TGR. Tämä blogi löytyy myös suomeksi Relaasta.